It's easy to travel from
the UK to Switzerland by train. It's civilised,
comfortable, environmentally-friendly and affordable, altogether a much less stressful
experience than flying. Take
Eurostar from London to Paris in just 2 hours 15 minutes for
as little as £59 return, then take a high-speed TGV train from
Paris to Geneva, Lausanne, Bern or Zurich for as little as £23
each way. Or as little as £46 in 1st class! Unlike
a flight, that's city centre to city centre, with no baggage
fees, no airport taxes, bring your own bottle of wine for the
journey if you like, and infants go free. Paris-Geneva
takes just 3½
hours and there's great scenery in the French Alps on the way.
This page will explain the best routes, train times, fares, and how
to buy tickets both online and by phone.
It's easy to
travel from London to Basel or Zurich by train, taking
Eurostar to Paris, a
10 minute walk
from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de l'Est, then a direct
Paris-Switzerland high-speed TGV on the brand-new TGV-Est
line, opened in June 2007. It's affordable, too, London to
Basel starts at £119 return, city centre to city centre.
The TGVs from Paris to Basel & Zurich are run by Lyria, a
consortium of the French and Swiss national railways.
Train
times...
The new
TGV-Est high-speed line opened on 10 June 2007,
replacing conventional trains with high-speed TGVs and
slashing journey times from Paris to Basel & Zurich. A wonderful
and relaxing way to travel!
London
► Basel & Zurich
Eurostar
(30 min check-in):
Mon-Fri
Daily
Daily
Daily
*
Daily
*
London St Pancras depart:
05:25
09:32
14:04
20:04
20:04
Paris Gare du Nord arrive:
08:50
10:56
17:26
23:26
23:26
10
min walk
to the Gare de l'Est for the Lyria TGV to
Switzerland...
Paris Gare de l'Est depart:
10:24
14:24
18:24
06:24
08:24
Basel
arrive:
13:51
17:56
21:51
09:56
11:56
Zurich
arrive:
15:00
19:14
23:00
11:00
13:00
How to
read these timetables... Each column is a
service, and you read downwards. There's a change
of trains at each of the grey bars.
**
Coming from Zurich, you must change trains
in Basel. This Lyria TGV to Paris starts in Basel.
Basel & Zurich
► London
Lyria
TGV:
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily *
Zurich depart:
07:02
08:34**
13:02
15:02
16:27
Basel depart:
08:02
10:02
14:02
16:02
18:02
Paris Gare de l'Est arrive:
11:34
13:34
17:34
19:34
21:34
10
min walk
to the Gare du Nord for Eurostar (30 min check-in)
Paris Gare du Nord depart:
13:04
15:07
19:13
21:13
07:13
London St Pancras
arrive:
14:31
16:36
20:34
22:34
08:28
On board
the TGV from Paris to Basel or Zurich...
The TGV
trains from Paris to Basel & Zurich feature chic new
designer interiors by Christian Lacroix. There's a
cafe-bar car serving drinks & snacks, baby-changing
facilities, and wheelchair spaces. You can find a
seat numbering plan & other useful information at
www.tgv-lyria.com. First class passengers can
pre-book & pre-pay for a hot 3-course meal served at
your seat using
www.tgv-lyria.com.
The easiest & cheapest way for UK residents to buy tickets to anywhere in
Switzerland is online at
www.raileurope.co.uk,
just use the booking form below.
But please read the booking tips below first.
If you live in another European country,
click here. If you live
outside Europe,
click here.
You can also now buy through tickets from the UK to
Switzerland at
www.eurostar.com, see the next section - I recommend
checking prices on both sites.
Tickets can be collected at St Pancras or stations in
France free of charge, or sent to a UK
address for a £1.95 fee.
There's no fee for debit cards, but they charge a 2% credit card fee. Only
UK credit cards are accepted.
Reservations for Lyria TGVs to Switzerland open 90 days before
departure. You can't book before reservations open,
but if you ask
www.raileurope.co.uk
for a date more than 90 days ahead, it may offer to send an
email
reminder when reservations open, a
useful facility!
To get an idea of prices if your date of travel is more than
90 days away, ask it for a date within the
next 90 days. Be aware that the 90 days is often
squeezed to less than 90 for travel in the few weeks
immediately after the European timetable changes in
mid-June & mid-December. Ask for a date before the
timetable change to get an idea of price.
Top tip:
It's best to treat London to (say) Zurich as two
separate journeys, one from London to Paris, the other
Paris to Zurich. This gives you more control, and
allows you to mix and match (for example) 2nd class Eurostar
with 1st class on the Lyria TGV. It also allows
stopovers in Paris is you like.
Step 1, select 'Paris' in the 'from' box and book from Paris to
Switzerland & back. On the
confirmation page, clicking 'show itinerary details' shows the
specific coach number & seat number
you've been given. Check your TGV times before booking
the Eurostar, as engineering work sometimes affects arrival
times.
Step 2, when you've booked the train from Paris to
Switzerland & back,
add this to your basket, click 'continue shopping' and book the Eurostar from London
to Paris & back. Use
the Eurostar times on this page as a guide, but feel free to
choose an earlier Eurostar from London or a later Eurostar
back from Paris, if these have cheaper seats available
or if you'd like to stop off in Paris.
For a one-way
journey on Eurostar, see this advice.
Tickets are sent from Rail Europe's UK office and normally arrive in a couple of
days. If you need any help, you can call Rail Europe's
UK call centre on 0844 848 5 848.
You can find a Lyria seat
numbering plan at
www.tgv-lyria.com. On trains between Paris and
Basel, Zurich, Bern & Lausanne, first class passengers can
pre-book a hot 3-course at-seat meal at
www.tgv-lyria.com.
This form links to
www.eurostar.com, an it's sell one-way or return
tickets from London or over 130 UK towns & cities to
several key cities in Switzerland.
Children under 4 go free, no ticket required.
Children = children over 4 but under 12.
Youth = anyone under 26. Senior = anyone over 60.
www.eurostar.com can now sell train tickets from London
or over 130 UK towns & cities to these stations in
Switzerland: Aigle, Basel, Berne, Brig, Chur, Geneva,
Landquart, Lausanne, Leuk, Martigny, Montreux, Neuchatel,
Sargans, Sierre, Sion, Vallorbe, Visp or Zurich.
Special though fares from London to Switzerland start at £99
return.
Plus points: If the
cheapest prices are available (but note the 'if'), the
special through fares sold by
www.eurostar.com can be the cheapest way to reach
Switzerland by train. Unlike
www.raileurope.co.uk,
it allows you to book through tickets from 130 towns &
cities all over the UK, not just from London or Ebbsfleet or
Ashford.
www.eurostar.com accepts all credit cards, not just UK
ones, & allows tickets to be collected on departure in
London, so it's good if you live outside the UK. It
also allows you to choose a specific Eurostar seat.
Limitations:
www.eurostar.com can only sell these special through
fares with no stopovers.
www.raileurope.co.uk
can be cheaper, as it is capable of combining cheap
London-Paris fares with cheap Paris-Switzerland fares.
This often works out better value, as large numbers of cheap
tickets are loaded into the system for these two busy
sectors whereas the number of cheap London-Switzerland
through tickets loaded into the system seems to be
relatively small. By booking London-Paris &
Paris-Switzerland separately,
www.raileurope.co.uk
can also be used to arrange stopovers in Paris. Top
tip: Try both
www.eurostar.com &
www.raileurope.co.uk!
How to buy
tickets by phone or in person...
Call
Rail
Europe on 0844 848 5 848 (lines open
09:00-21:00 Monday-Friday, 09:00-18:00 Saturday, no longer
open on Sundays, £8 booking fee), or Ffestiniog
Travel on 01766 772050 (office hours
Monday-Friday, 8% booking fee). You can also buy
tickets in person at Rail Europe's central London travel
centre, at 1 Regent Street, open 10:00-18:00 Monday-Friday,
10:00-17:00 Saturdays. For
more information about booking European trains, see
the How to buy train
tickets to Europe page.
Residents of any country may use voyages-sncf.com.
Tickets can be sent free of charge to any address in Europe including the
UK, or collected from any main French station.
The French Railways website has exactly the same fares as
www.raileurope.co.uk.
On the plus side, because of exchange rates, buying in euros
at
www.voyages-sncf.com can be a bit cheaper than buying in
pounds at
www.raileurope.co.uk,
and there are no postage or credit card fees.
The disadvantage is that if anything goes wrong you'll be
dealing directly with French Railways through French call
centres rather than a UK company. It's your
decision!
Booking for trains to Switzerland opens 90 days before
departure, you can't book before reservations open!
Go to
www.voyages-sncf.com. The 'English' button is a UK flag at
the bottom. Clicking it now sends you to their UK mini-site,
www.tgv-europe.com. The UK version of tgv-europe.com
will send tickets to any UK address or allows
ticket collection at any main French station (if your
journey starts in France, obviously). To have tickets sent to
addresses in other European countries, change the mini-site
to the appropriate country by clicking the flag and country
name at the bottom of the page. If you live outside
Europe, see the advice in the next
section.
First, book the train from Paris to Switzerland and back.
Top tip:
If you see no cheap fares through to your final destination, try looking for a
cheap fare from Paris to the first interchange point, then
book a full fare
ticket for the internal Swiss leg of the journey separately.
For example, if you see no cheap fares from Paris to Zurich,
look for cheap fares from Paris to Basel then book Basel to
Zurich as a separate journey.
If and when an advanced booking form appears, look for the
drop-down country list and change it to 'Great Britain'.
Tickets can then be sent to any UK address or picked up at
any main station in France. Selecting other countries
will switch you to the relevant mini-site, allowing ticket
despatch to other European countries.
When you've booked the Paris-Switzerland train, click 'add
another ticket' and book the Eurostar from London to Paris
and back as a separate journey. Use the Eurostar times
on this page as a guide, but feel free to choose an earlier
Eurostar from London, or a later Eurostar returning from
Paris, if these have cheaper seats available or if you'd
like to stop off in Paris. For a one-way trip on
Eurostar, see
this advice.
Perhaps the best
place to buy a one-way or return ticket from London to
Switzerland is at
www.eurostar.com. Eurostar.com accepts all credit cards
and allows ticket collection at London St Pancras station on
departure. However, you can't use it to buy
tickets from Switzerland to London as there's
no facility to collect tickets in Switzerland, so for this
use raileurope.com (or .com.au etc.) as shown in the
paragraph below. If you want to stop off in Paris,
you'll need to book London-Paris & Paris-Switzerland as two
separate journeys using raileurope.com (or .com.au etc), see
the paragraph below.
You can buy tickets for both
Eurostar and the Paris-Switzerland trains online at
www.raileurope.com
(if you live in the USA or Canada),
www.raileurope.com.au (if you live in Australia
or NZ), or
www.raileurope.co.za (South Africa), which are
subsidiaries of French Railways. Be aware that the fares
charged may be slightly higher than those charged in Europe.
Tickets can be sent to any address in the USA, Canada,
Australia, NZ, South Africa or
worldwide.
Find agencies in other countries...
Alternatively, to buy tickets at
European prices, buy the
London-Paris Eurostar online at
www.eurostar.com, selecting the option to pick up
tickets at the station. Remember that on Eurostar, a
return ticket is often cheaper than a one-way..! Then book the Paris-Switzerland train online at
www.voyages-sncf.com, following this step-by-step advice, leaving 'France'
selected, which allows you to pick up tickets on the day of travel at the ticket office at any
main station in France, including Paris Gare de Lyon or Gare
de l'Est.
Taking the train is the stress-free and
environmentally-sound alternative from London to
Bern.
Eurostar links
London and Paris in just 2 hours 40 minutes, from £59 return. High speed
'Lyria' TGV trains link Paris with Bern in
just 4 hours 45 minutes, some direct, some with a change of
train at Lausanne, with fares from £23 each way (from £41 in 1st
class!). TGVs
have
1st & 2nd class, with a buffet-bar car selling
drinks and snacks. There are power points for
mobiles & laptops at 1st class seats.
You can find a seat numbering plan & other useful
information at
www.tgv-lyria.com. First class passengers can pre-book &
pre-pay for a hot 3-course meal served at your seat at
www.tgv-lyria.com. Lyria is a
consortium of the French and Swiss national railways.
Free if not occupying
its own seat, £12 with own seat.
Railpass
fare:
£8 reservation fee for holders of InterRail, Eurail,
etc.
Person in wheelchair
£47 one-way, £94 return, 1st class. Companion
£16 each way.
Dogs & pets:
£31 each way. Guide dogs free.
Fares for
journeys involving a change in Lausanne: See the
London-Paris-Lausanne fares in the
London to Lausanne section, and add the cost of a Swiss
domestic ticket from Lausanne to Bern, CHF31 (£19) one-way,
CHF62 (£38) return 2nd class.
For journeys involving a change in
Lausanne, if no cheap fares show up for the
Paris-Bern journey, trying asking the system for
Paris-Lausanne, then buy a Lausanne-Bern ticket
separately at the ticket office on arrival at
Lausanne. You can check Lausanne-Bern prices
online at
www.sbb.ch. No reservation is necessary
(or even possible!) for the domestic Swiss Lausanne-Bern section,
so it's easy to buy this at the station in
Lausanne.
How to buy tickets by phone...
You
can buy tickets from any UK European rail booking agency, including
Rail
Europe on 0844 848 5 848 (lines open
09:00-21:00 Monday to Friday, 09:00-18:00 Saturdays, no
longer open on Sundays, £8
phone booking fee applies) or Ffestiniog
Travel on 01766 772050 (8% booking fee applies,
office hours Monday-Friday). Rail
Europe have a travel centre for personal callers at 1 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4XT, open 10:00-18:00 Monday-Friday, 10:00-17:00
Saturdays. For
more information about how to buy European train tickets,
see the How to buy train
tickets to Europe page.
How to buy tickets if you live
in the USA, Canada, Australia, etc.
You can buy tickets for both
Eurostar and the Paris-Switzerland trains online at
www.raileurope.com
(if you live in the USA or Canada) or
www.raileurope.com.au (if you live in Australia), both
subsidiaries of French Railways. Be aware that the fares
charged may be slightly higher than those charged in Europe.
Tickets can be sent to any address in the USA, Canada,
Australia, or
worldwide.
Find agencies in other countries...
Alternatively, to buy tickets at
European prices, buy the
London-Paris Eurostar online at
www.eurostar.com, selecting the option to pick up
tickets at the station. Remember that on Eurostar, a
return ticket is often cheaper than a one-way..! Then book the Paris-Switzerland train online at
www.voyages-sncf.com, following this step-by-step advice, leaving 'France'
selected, which allows you to pick up tickets on the day of travel at the ticket office at any
main station in France, including Paris Gare de Lyon or Gare
de l'Est.
Taking the train is a wonderful, stress-free and
environmentally-sound way to get from London to
Geneva.
Eurostar links
London and Paris in just 2 hours 40 minutes, from £59 return. High speed
'Lyria' TGV trains link Paris with Geneva in
just 3½ hours, from £15 each way (from £38 in 1st class!).
The Paris-Geneva TGVs use a special high speed line at up to
186mph for the
first part of their journey, then slow right down over conventional
lines through the beautiful French Alps for the remainder of their run
into Switzerland. The trip is a real treat, take a
bottle of wine with you, put your feet up and enjoy the ride. TGVs
have
first and second class, with a buffet-bar car selling
drinks and snacks. There are power points for
mobiles & laptops at 1st class seats. Lyria is a
consortium of the French and Swiss national railways.
'Lyria' high-speed TGV
trains link Paris with Geneva...
If you've time to spare at the Gare de Lyon for a meal or
drink, try the famous
Train Bleu
restaurant on the main concourse.
IMPORTANT: Engineering work is affecting
Paris-Geneva TGV trains on certain dates in March, April &
May 2010, with some trains cancelled & buses
replacing other trains for part of the journey. When
booking, if you can't see a direct Paris-Geneva TGV this
might be the reason. In which case you may prefer to
travel London-Paris-Lausanne
instead, then use frequent Swiss domestic trains from
Lausanne to Geneva, see
www.sbb.ch
for times & fares.
How to read
these timetables Each column is a service, and you
read downwards. There's a change of trains at each of
the grey bars.
The easiest & cheapest way for UK residents to buy tickets to anywhere in
Switzerland is at
www.raileurope.co.uk,
just use this online booking form.
But please read the booking tips below first.
If you live in another European country,
click here. If you live outside Europe, for
example in the USA or Australia,
click here. You can now buy through tickets from
the UK to Switzerland at
www.eurostar.com too, see the next section.
Children under 4 go free, no ticket required.
Children = children over 4 but under 12.
Youth = anyone under 26. Senior = anyone over 60.
If your destination isn't listed in the drop-down
list above, simply go to
www.raileurope.co.uk
& type it in. The system recognises many other
Swiss destinations besides the ones shown here.
Tickets can be collected at St Pancras or stations in
France free of charge, or sent to a UK
address for a £1.95 fee.
There's no fee for debit cards, but they charge a 2% credit card fee. Only
UK credit cards are accepted.
Reservations for Lyria TGVs to Switzerland open 90 days before
departure, you can't book before reservations open. But if you ask
www.raileurope.co.uk
for a date more than 90 days ahead it will offer to send an
email
reminder when reservations open. A
useful facility!
To get an idea of prices if your date of travel is more than
90 days away, ask for a date within the
next 90 days. The 90 days can be
squeezed to less than 90 in the weeks
immediately after the European timetable change in
mid-June & mid-December. Ask for a date before the
timetable change to get an idea of price.
Top tip 1:
By all means book the easy way, asking the system for a
ticket from 'London St Pancras' to your Swiss destination
all in one go. However, it's better to book a
London-Switzerland journey in two stages, first booking the
TGV from Paris to Switzerland & back, adding it to your
basket, clicking 'continue shopping' and booking a suitable
connecting Eurostar from London to Paris & back. Make
sure you allow at least 60 minutes to change trains &
stations in Paris on the outward journey, 90 minutes on the
return. Booking in two stages gives you more control,
allows you to include stopovers in Paris if you like, and
allows you to mix and match (for example) 2nd class Eurostar
with 1st class on the Lyria TGV - you'll often find a cheap
1st class fare on the TGV, but Eurostar 1st class is
expensive.
Top tip 2: The system will easily book direct
TGVs from Paris to Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, Basel or Zurich,
and can usually book tickets involving a simple change of
train, for example to Interlaken or Lucerne. But it
often struggles with places deep inside Switzerland like
Grindelwald or St Moritz. If you have any problems,
book the Lyria TGV to nearest main city and buy onward
tickets at the station once you get to Switzerland. No
advance booking is needed for Swiss internal trains, you
just turn up, buy a ticket and hop on. You can
check how much Swiss train tickets cost at
www.sbb.ch.
On the
confirmation page, click 'show itinerary details' to see the
seat & coach number
you've been given. Check your TGV times before booking
the Eurostar, as engineering work sometimes affects arrival
times.
Tickets are sent from Rail Europe's UK office and normally arrive in a couple of
days. If you need any help, you can call Rail Europe's
UK call centre on 0844 848 5 848.
You can find a Lyria seat
numbering plan at
www.tgv-lyria.com. On trains between Paris and
Basel, Zurich, Bern & Lausanne, first class passengers can
pre-book a hot 3-course at-seat meal at
www.tgv-lyria.com.
www.eurostar.com can now sell train tickets from London
or over 130 UK towns & cities to these stations in
Switzerland: Aigle, Basel, Berne, Brig, Chur, Geneva,
Landquart, Lausanne, Leuk, Martigny, Montreux, Neuchatel,
Sargans, Sierre, Sion, Vallorbe, Visp or Zurich.
Special though fares from London to Switzerland start at £99
return.
Plus points: If the
cheapest prices are available (but note the 'if'), the
special through fares sold by
www.eurostar.com can be the cheapest way to reach
Switzerland by train. Unlike
www.raileurope.co.uk,
it allows you to book through tickets from 130 towns &
cities all over the UK, not just from London or Ebbsfleet or
Ashford.
www.eurostar.com accepts all credit cards, not just UK
ones, & allows tickets to be collected on departure in
London, so it's good if you live outside the UK. It
also allows you to choose a specific Eurostar seat.
Limitations:
www.eurostar.com can only sell these special through
fares with no stopovers.
www.raileurope.co.uk
can be cheaper, as it is capable of combining cheap
London-Paris fares with cheap Paris-Switzerland fares.
This often works out better value, as large numbers of cheap
tickets are loaded into the system for these two busy
sectors whereas the number of cheap London-Switzerland
through tickets loaded into the system seems to be
relatively small. By booking London-Paris &
Paris-Switzerland separately,
www.raileurope.co.uk
can also be used to arrange stopovers in Paris. Top
tip: Try both
www.eurostar.com &
www.raileurope.co.uk!
How to buy
tickets by phone or in person...
You
can buy tickets from any UK European rail booking agency, including
Rail
Europe on 0844 848 5 848 (lines open
09:00-21:00 Monday to Friday, 09:00-18:00 Saturdays, no
longer open on Sundays, £8
phone booking fee applies) or Ffestiniog
Travel on 01766 772050 (office hours
Monday-Friday, 8% booking fee applies). Rail
Europe have a travel centre for personal callers at 1 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4XT, open 10:00-18:00 Mon-Fri, 10:00-17:00
Saturdays. For
more information about how to buy European train tickets,
see the How to buy train
tickets to Europe page.
Residents of any country may use voyages-sncf.com.
Tickets can be sent free of charge to any address in Europe including the
UK, or collected from any main French station.
The French Railways website has exactly the same fares as
www.raileurope.co.uk.
On the plus side, because of exchange rates, buying in euros
at
www.voyages-sncf.com can be a bit cheaper than buying in
pounds at
www.raileurope.co.uk,
and there are no postage or credit card fees.
The disadvantage is that if anything goes wrong you'll be
dealing directly with French Railways through French call
centres rather than a UK company. It's your
decision!
Booking for Lyria TGV trains to Switzerland opens 90 days
before departure, you can't book before reservations open!
Go to
www.voyages-sncf.com. The 'English' button is a UK flag at
the bottom. Clicking it now sends you to their UK mini-site,
www.tgv-europe.com. The UK version of tgv-europe.com
will send tickets to any UK address or allows
ticket collection at any main French station (if your
journey starts in France, obviously). To have tickets sent to
addresses in other European countries, change the mini-site
to the appropriate country by clicking the flag and country
name at the bottom of the page. If you live outside
Europe, see the advice in the next
section.
To get the cheapest fares, you must book in two stages: First, using the train times on
this page as a guide, book the TGV train from Paris to
Switzerland and back, looking for the best fares.
If and when an advanced booking form appears, look for the
drop-down country list and change it to 'Great Britain'.
Tickets can then be sent to any UK address or picked up at
any main station in France. Selecting other countries
will switch you to the relevant mini-site, allowing ticket
despatch to other European countries.
The system
will easily book the direct TGVs from Paris to
Geneva, Lausanne, Basel, Zurich or Bern, and it will also
book tickets to many destinations involving a change of
train in Switzerland, such as Interlaken or Zermatt.
But it can struggle with some destinations, for example St
Moritz. If you have any difficulty booking to your
final Swiss destination, simply book the direct TGV from Paris to
Lausanne/Bern/Basel/Zurich, then buy
onward domestic Swiss tickets separately either online at
www.sbb.ch or at the station
when you get to Switzerland. This is easy, because no
advance booking is necessary for Swiss domestic trains, you
can turn up, buy a ticket and hop on.
When you've booked the Paris-Switzerland train, click 'add
another ticket' and book the Eurostar from London to Paris
and back as a separate journey. Use the Eurostar times
on this page as a guide, but feel free to choose an earlier
Eurostar from London, or a later Eurostar returning from
Paris, if these have cheaper seats available or if you'd
like to stop off in Paris. For a one-way trip on
Eurostar, see
this advice.
You can buy tickets for both
Eurostar and the Paris-Switzerland trains online at
www.raileurope.com
(if you live in the USA or Canada),
www.raileurope.com.au (if you live in Australia
or NZ), or
www.raileurope.co.za (South Africa), which are
subsidiaries of French Railways. The fares
charged may be slightly higher than those charged in Europe.
Tickets can be sent to any address in the USA, Canada,
Australia, NZ, South Africa or
worldwide.
Find agencies in other countries...
Alternatively, to buy tickets at
cheaper European prices, buy the
London-Paris Eurostar online at
www.eurostar.com, selecting the option to pick up
tickets at the station. Remember that on Eurostar, a
return ticket is often cheaper than a one-way! Then book the Paris-Switzerland train online at
www.voyages-sncf.com, following this advice. It
allows you to pick up tickets on the day of travel at the ticket office at any
main station in France, including Paris Gare de Lyon or Gare
de l'Est.
Taking the train is a wonderful, stress-free and
environmentally-friendly way to get from London to Lausanne or
anywhere in Western Switzerland. Take Eurostar from London
to Paris in just 2 hours 40 minutes from £59 return, then a
high-speed 'Lyria' TGV from Paris to Lausanne in only 3 hours 50
minutes, from £23 each way (£41 in 1st class!).
Remember, that's city centre to city centre, not airport to
airport. Frequent Swiss trains, running like clockwork,
link Lausanne with Vevey, Montreux, Aigle, Matigny, &
Sion. Change at Montreux for the scenic Golden Pass route
to Gstaad. Take a bottle of wine onto the TGV with you, put
your feet up and enjoy the ride...
A 'Lyria' high-speed TGV ...
TGV 1st
class...
TGV 2nd
class...
There are power points for mobiles & laptops at 1st class seats.
You can find a seat numbering plan & other useful
information at
www.tgv-lyria.com. First class passengers can
pre-book & pre-pay for a hot 3-course meal served at
your seat using
www.tgv-lyria.com. Lyria is a consortium of the French and Swiss national railways.
Change
at Lausanne for frequent InterCity trains to
Montreux...
Lausanne depart:
17:20
17:20
18:20
20:20
22:20
22:20
Montreux
arrive:
17:40
17:40
18:40
20:40
22:40
22:40
Quick & simple change
at Montreux for the narrow gauge line to Gstaad...
Montreux depart:
17:45
17:47
18:45
20:45
-
-
Gstaad
arrive:
19:05
19:05
20:14
22:14
-
-
How to
read these timetables Each column is a
service, and you read downwards. There's a change
of trains at each of the grey bars.
* This journey requires an overnight stop in Paris.
Suggested hotels near the station in
Paris. Take any Eurostar you like, times vary, check what's available when you book.
If you've time
to spare at the Gare de Lyon for a meal or drink, try the
famous Train Bleu
restaurant on the main concourse.
Gstaad,
Montreux, Lausanne
► London
Daily
Daily
Mon-Fri
Sat, Sun
Daily *
Fri, Sun *
Gstaad
depart:
-
05:47
09:35
09:35
15:35
15:35
Montreux arrive:
-
07:13
11:10
11:10
17:10
17:10
Change
at Montreux for frequent InterCity trains to
Lausanne...
Montreux
depart:
06:19
07:54
12:19
12:19
17:19
18:19
Lausanne arrive:
06:40
08:15
12:40
12:40
17:40
18:40
Change
at Lausanne for the Lyria TGV train to Paris...
Connections to Vevey, Montreux, Sion, Martigny, Gstaad:
Lausanne is
the ideal entry point for western Switzerland.
Frequent (at least half-hourly) trains link Lausanne with Vevey, Montreux (19 minutes), Sion,
& Martigny.
Change at Montreux for the amazingly scenic narrow-gauge Golden Pass
route to Gstaad & Zweisimmen. The Golden Pass route from
Montreux to Gstaad climbs spectacularly up the mountain
out of Montreux, passing over the top to the valley
behind. You can check train times and
fares from Lausanne to anywhere in Switzerland at
www.sbb.ch.
Right: Taking the train from London to
Gstaad. It's a very scenic train ride
from Montreux to Gstaad, and some departures use panoramic coaches like these.
Lausanne-Montreux is CHF10 (£6) each way 2nd class, £10
each way 1st class.
Lausanne-Gstaad is CHF31 (£19) each way 2nd class,
CHF52 (£32) 1st class.
You can check fares for any journey in Switzerland
at
www.sbb.ch.
For
destinations further into Switzerland, a
Swiss Transfer Ticket
allows one return journey from your point of entry
(in this case Lausanne) to any station in
Switzerland, for £75 return 2nd class, £113 return
1st class.
How to buy
tickets online...
The
best and cheapest way to buy tickets from
London or Paris to Lausanne is online, just
follow the
instructions above.
The best way to buy
onward tickets from Lausanne to Montreux or Gstaad
is at the station when you reach Lausanne, or for
journeys further into Switzerland, buy a
Swiss Transfer Ticket
before you leave home.
How to buy
tickets by phone or in person...
You
can buy tickets from any UK European rail booking agency, including
Rail
Europe on 0844 848 5 848 (lines open
09:00-21:00 Monday to Friday, 09:00-18:00 Saturdays, no
longer open on Sundays, £8 booking fee applies) or Ffestiniog
Travel on 01766 772050 (office hours Mon-Fri, 8% booking fee applies). Rail
Europe have a travel centre for personal callers at 1 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4XT, open 10:00-18:00 Mon-Fri, 10:00-17:00
Saturdays. For
more information about how to buy European train tickets,
see the How to buy train
tickets to Europe page.
Just arrived from London by train...
The local train to Grindelwald has reached the
buffer stops at the end of the line from
St Pancras,
no flying necessary.
It's easy to travel
by train from the UK to Interlaken and the
Jungfrau region.
Take Eurostar to Paris to connect with a fast
Lyria TGV from Paris to Basel, Lausanne, or Bern.
TGVs have 1st & 2nd class, with a buffet-bar
car selling drinks and snacks. There are
power points for mobiles & laptops at all 1st
class seats. Take a bottle of wine with
you, put your feet up and enjoy the ride!
Once in Switzerland, the efficient Swiss
InterCity network will whisk you onwards through
the mountains and along the lakeshore to Interlaken.
Lyria is a consortium of the French and Swiss
national railways.
Interlaken lies at the centre of the Jungfrau
region, with narrow gauge local trains up into the
mountains to skiing resorts such as Grindelwald
nestling at the foot of the Eiger, and Lauterbrunnen,
at the foot of the Jungfrau.
A rack railway climbs the Jungfrau to the 'Top of
Europe' from both Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen.
The route via Basel is quickest, but some services
work better via Bern, it's up to you...
London
► Interlaken & Grindelwald (via Basel)
Eurostar
(30 min check-in):
Mon-Fri
Daily
Daily
Daily
*
Daily
*
London St Pancras depart:
05:25
09:32
14:04
20:04
20:04
Paris Gare du Nord arrive:
08:50
10:56
17:26
23:26
23:26
10
min walk
to the Gare de l'Est for the Lyria TGV to
Switzerland...
Paris Gare de l'Est depart:
10:24
14:24
18:24
06:24
08:24
Basel
arrive:
13:51
17:56
21:51
09:56
11:56
Change
trains at Basel onto a Swiss InterCity train...
Basel depart:
14:01
18:01
22:01
10:01
12:01
Interlaken Ost arrive:
15:57
19:57
23:59
11:57
13:57
Change
trains at Interlaken onto a connecting narrow-gauge train...
Interlaken Ost depart:
16:05
20:05
-
12:05
14:05
Grindelwald arrive:
16:39
20:39
-
12:39
14:39
London
► Interlaken & Grindelwald (via Lausanne or Bern)
Direct = by direct Lyria TGV from Paris to Bern.
This is the recommended option, as it's cheapest &
simplest.
Change =
by Lyria TGV from Paris to Lausanne, then by Swiss
InterCity train from Lausanne to Bern.
Lauterbrunnen & the Jungfrau:
Half-hourly local trains link Interlaken Ost with
Grindelwald & Lauterbrunnen. You can check times and fares using the journey planner
at
www.sbb.ch.
By train up the Jungfrau.
If you've time
to spare at the Gare de Lyon for a meal or drink, try the
famous Train Bleu
restaurant on the main concourse.
Grindelwald
& Interlaken
► London (via Basel)
Narrow-gauge
train:
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily *
Grindelwald depart:
-
06:49
10:49
12:49
14:49
Interlaken Ost arrive:
-
07:24
11:24
13:24
15:24
Change
trains at Basel onto a Swiss InterCity train...
Interlaken Ost depart:
05:21
07:31
11:31
13:31
15:31
Basel arrive:
07:32
09:32
13:32
15:32
17:32
Change
trains at Basel onto Lyria TGV...
Basel depart:
08:02
10:02
14:02
16:02
18:02
Paris Gare de l'Est arrive:
11:34
13:34
17:34
19:34
21:34
10
min walk
to the Gare du Nord for Eurostar (30 min check-in)
Paris Gare du Nord depart:
13:04
15:07
19:13
21:13
07:13
London St Pancras
arrive:
14:31
16:36
20:34
22:34
08:28
Grindelwald & Interlaken
► London (via
Lausanne or Bern)
Narrow-gauge
train:
Daily
Mon-Fri
Sat, Sun
Daily *
Fri, Sun *
Grindelwald depart:
06:19
09:19
09:19
14:19
15:19
Interlaken Ost arrive:
06:54
09:54
09:54
14:54
15:54
Change
trains at Basel onto a Swiss InterCity train...
Free if not occupying
its own seat, £12 with own seat.
Railpass
fare:
£8 reservation fee for holders of InterRail, Eurail,
etc.
Person in wheelchair
£47 one-way, £94 return, 1st class. Companion
£16 each way.
3. Bern to Interlaken:
Bern-Interlaken is CHF26 (£16) each way 2nd
class. Lausanne-Interlaken is CHF 51 (£31)
each way. You can check fares for any journey in Switzerland
at
www.sbb.ch.
For
destinations further into Switzerland, a
Swiss Transfer Ticket
allows one return journey from your point of entry
(in this case Bern or Lausanne) to any station in
Switzerland, for £75 return 2nd class, £113 return
1st class. In many cases, a
Swiss Transfer Ticket
will be your best option.
Fares for
journeys via Basel:
See the London-Paris-Basel fares in the London to
Basel section, then add
the cost of a Swiss domestic ticket from Lausanne to
Interlaken, about £29 one-way, £58 return 2nd class.
If going beyond Interlaken (for example, to Grindelwald) a
Swiss Transfer Ticket
would be the cheapest option.
Fares for
journeys involving a change in Lausanne rather than Bern:
See the London-Paris-Lausanne fares in the
London to Lausanne section, and add
the cost of a Swiss domestic ticket from Lausanne to
Interlaken, CHF51 (£31) each way in 2nd class.
How to buy
tickets online...
The
best & cheapest way to buy tickets from
London to Basel, Bern or Lausanne is online, just
follow the
instructions above.
The best way to buy
onward tickets from Bern or Lausanne is at the
station when you reach Switzerland. No
reservation is necessary for Swiss domestic
trains, you just buy a ticket and hop on. If
you like, you can save time by pre-purchasing at
www.sbb.ch. If you want to buy a Swiss
transfer ticket you must do this in advance before
leaving the UK:
Buy a Swiss Transfer Ticket online.
How to buy
tickets by phone or in person...
You
can buy tickets from any UK European rail booking agency, including
Rail
Europe on 0844 848 5 848 (lines open
09:00-21:00 Monday to Friday, 09:00-18:00 Saturdays, no
longer open on Sundays, £8 booking fee applies) or Ffestiniog
Travel on 01766 772050 (office hours
Monday-Friday, 8% booking fee applies). Rail
Europe have a travel centre for personal callers at 1 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4XT, open 10:00-18:00 Mon-Fri, 10:00-17:00
Saturdays. For
more information about how to buy European train tickets,
see the How to buy train
tickets to Europe page.
If you're staying in the
Interlaken area, why not climb the
North Face of the Eiger, traverse the Mönch
and scale the Jungfrau to an altitude of over 11,000 feet? By train, of course,
on the
famous Jungfraubahn!
Regular narrow-gauge trains link Interlaken Ost
(567m or 1,860 feet above sea level) with the ski
resorts of Lauterbrunnen & Grindelwald (1,034m or
3,393 feet). Even
smaller trains connect and climb from Grindelwald &
Lauterbrunnen up to the interchange
point for the Jungfraubahn at Kleine Scheidegg,
2,061m (6,762 feet) above sea level. Completed
in 1912, the Jungfaubahn rack railway climbs up the North Face of
the Eiger, at first in the open air and then in a
long tunnel
inside the mountain. The train stops at Eigerwand
(2,865m or 9,400 feet) inside the Eiger's infamous North Face for
5 minutes, allowing you to get out and see the view
from the tunnel's viewing window. Rescue missions for
climbers caught on the Eiger start from here. The train continues
up inside the Eiger and Mönch mountains, with
another 5 minute stop at the Eismeer ('Ice Sea')
viewing point until it
reaches Jungfraujoch, 11,333 feet (3,454 metres)
above sea level, the highest railway station in
Europe and billed as 'The Top of Europe'. The Jungfraujoch
complex nestles below the Jungfrau's summit.
At Jungfraujoch you'll find restaurants, coffee shop,
Europe's highest post office, souvenir shops, the
'sphinx' observatory & observation deck, and 'ice
palace' and an open air 'ice plateau'.
Jungfraubahn: Starting the climb
from the interchange station at Kleine Sceidegg.
The first section is in the open air, the
train then enters a tunnel inside the Eiger's North
Face for the remainder of the climb.
At Jungfraujoch station: After
crossing the Monch onto the Jungfrau, the train
arrives at the underground Jungfraujoch station inside the
mountain, the 'Top of Europe'.
View from the 'Sphinx' observation deck at
Jungfraujoch. This is the view towards
Interlaken, with Kleine Sceidegg in the valley
in the foreground.
A trip on the Jungfraubahn doesn't
come cheap: CHF 158 (£68) return per adult from
Grindelwald or CHF 176 (£77) from Interlaken. There's
more information at the Jungfraubahn website,
www.jungfraubahn.ch, including timetable, fares, webcams
and weather reports.
London-Zermatt by train: On a clear
day, Zermatt has excellent views of the
Matterhorn, towering above the town.
Zermatt lies nestled at the foot of the imposing Matterhorn,
surrounded by mountains. It's a car-free resort, which can
only be reached by train. Electric 'johnny cabs' shuttle
hotel guests to hotels and act as taxis.
Change
at Lausanne for the hourly InterCity train to Visp &
Brig...
Lausanne depart:
17:20
17:20
18:20
20:45
v
22:20
22:20
12:20 w
Visp arrive (change for Zermatt):
18:55
18:55
19:55
22:22
v
23:59
23:59
13:55 w
Brig arrive:
19:02
19:02
20:02
22:30
v
00:05
00:05
14:02 w
Change
at Visp for the scenic narrow gauge train up the
Mattertal Valley to Zermatt...
Visp depart:
19:10
19:10
20:10
22:40
-
-
14:10
Zermatt
arrive:
20:14
20:14
21:14
23:44
-
-
15:14
How to
read these timetables Each column is a
service, and you read downwards. There's a change
of trains at each of the grey bars.
v = on Fridays from December to early April, the
15:58 TGV from Paris is extended to Visp & Brig,
at other times use the connection shown here.
w = on Saturdays from December to early April, the
07:58 TGV from Paris is extended to Visp & Brig,
arriving a bit earlier than the normal connection
shown here.
x = on Saturdays from December to early April, the
18:03
Lausanne to Paris TGV is extended to start
in Brig & Visp, departing a little later than the
normal connecting trains shown here.
* This journey requires an overnight hotel stop in Paris.
Suggested hotels near the station in
Paris. Take any
Eurostar you like between London & Paris, times shown may vary.
Zermatt
& Brig
► London
Narrow
gauge train to Visp...
Daily
Daily
Mon-Fri
Sat, Sun
Daily *
Fri, Sun *
Zermatt
depart:
-
-
09:39
09:39
14:39
15:39
Visp arrive:
-
-
10:52
10:52
15:52
16:52
Change
at Visp for the hourly InterCity train to
Lausanne...
Brig
depart:
04:28
06:57
10:57
10:57
15:57
x
16:57
Visp
depart:
04:35
07:07
11:07
11:07
16:07
x
17:07
Lausanne arrive:
06:15
08:40
12:40
12:40
17:40
x
18:40
Change
at Lausanne for the Lyria TGV train to Paris...
The normal fare from Lausanne to Zermatt is about
CHF73 (£45) one-way, CHF146 (£90) return, so it's
better to buy a
Swiss Transfer Ticket.
This
allows one return journey from your point of entry
(in this case Lausanne) to any station in
Switzerland, for £75 return 2nd class, £113 return
1st class. You can check the normal fare from
Lausanne to anywhere in Switzerland at
www.sbb.ch.
How to buy
tickets online...
The
best & cheapest way to buy tickets from
London or Paris to Lausanne (or, on the days when
the TGVs run direct, Visp or Brig) is online, just
follow the
instructions above.
The best way to buy
onward tickets from Lausanne or Basel is at the
station when you reach Switzerland, or buy a
Swiss Transfer Ticket online before you go.
How to buy
tickets by phone or in person...
You
can buy tickets from any UK European rail booking agency, including
Rail
Europe on 0844 848 5 848 (lines open
09:00-21:00 Monday to Friday, 09:00-18:00 Saturdays, no
longer open on Sundays, £8 booking fee applies) or Ffestiniog
Travel on 01766 772050 (office hours
Monday-Friday, 8% booking fee applies). Rail
Europe have a travel centre for personal callers at 1 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4XT, open 10:00-18:00 Mon-Fri, 10:00-17:00
Saturdays. For
more information about how to buy European train tickets,
see the How to buy train
tickets to Europe page.
The Muottas Muragl Berghotel: A wonderful place
to stay near St Moritz, reached by local train to Punt
Muragl then funicular railway up the mountain to the
hotel, perched at 2,456 metres overlooking
the Engadin Valley...
Muottas Muragl website.
For many years, the
area around St Moritz, Davos and Klosters has attracted visitors from the UK both for winter sports and summer
holidays. The journey by narrow-gauge train from Chur
to St Moritz is one of the most scenic train rides in
Switzerland, or indeed the world. The convenient direct sleeper train
from Paris to Landquart & Chur was sadly withdrawn with the
opening of the TGV-Est high-speed line in June 2007, so
here's how to get there overland using the new high-speed
TGV trains.
Train times
London ► Chur, Davos, Klosters, St Moritz
Travel from London to Paris
by Eurostar, leaving London daily at 09:32 (09:22 on
Saturdays) and arriving at Paris Gare du Nord at 12:47.
It's a
10-minute walk to the Gare de l'Est.
Travel from Paris to Zurich
by 200 mph Lyria TGV, leaving Paris Gare de l'Est at
14:24 and arriving in Zurich at 19:14. A cafe-bar
is available.
For St Moritz, leave Zurich
at 19:37 by InterCity train, changing at Chur onto the
narrow-gauge Rhätische Bahn, arriving St Moritz at
22:59. The Chur-St Moritz journey is amazingly
scenic especially in winter.
For Klosters or Davos, leave
Zurich at 19:37 by InterCity train, change onto the
narrow-gauge Rhätische Bahn at Landquart, arriving
Klosters at 21:28 and Davos Platz at 21:57.
Train times St
Moritz, Klosters, Davos, Chur ► London
Travel from St Moritz to
Zurich by train, leaving St Moritz at 09:04 by narrow
gauge Rhätische
Bahn train, with a simple interchange at Chur onto the
standard gauge Swiss Federal Railways InterCity train to
Zurich, arriving 12:23.
Coming from Davos
or Klosters, leave Davos Platz at 10:02 or Klosters at
10:32, changing from the narrow gauge Rhätische
Bahn to the Swiss Federal Railways InterCity train at
Landquart, arriving Zurich 12:23.
Travel from Zurich to Paris by
200 mph Lyria TGV, leaving Zurich at 13:02 and arriving
Paris at 17:34. A cafe-bar is available. It's
a 10-minute walk
to the Gare du Nord.
Travel from
Paris to London by Eurostar, departing Paris Gare du Nord
at 19:13 arriving London St Pancras at 20:34.
You can of course use any of
the Zurich-London options shown in the
London to Zurich section above, then use
www.sbb.ch
to find connections from St Moritz to Zurich.
For example, you can also
leave St Moritz at 11:04, Davos at 12:02 or Klosters at
12:32, arriving Zurich 14:23. Depart Zurich by
Lyria TGV at 15:02, change in Paris, arriving London
22:34.
How much does
it cost?
London-Paris
by Eurostar starts at £35 one-way or £59 return.
Paris-Zurich
by Lyria TGV starts at £33 each way, but as you'll see in a
minute, you only need to book a ticket from Paris to Basel,
which starts at £23 each way. See the
London to Basel & Zurich section for
full details of London-Basel & London-Zurich fares.
From Zurich to
St Moritz, a
Swiss Transfer Ticket
is cheaper than buying normal tickets. It costs £75
return 2nd class, £113 return 1st class and allows one
return journey from your point of entry to any destination
in Switzerland. Just for the record, the normal
point-to-point fare from Zurich to St Moritz is
CHF69 (£43)
one-way, CHF138 (£86) return in 2nd class, the Swiss
Railways website
www.sbb.ch will confirm current fares.
Buying a
Swiss Transfer Ticket can save money on the Paris-Zurich
journey too. Read on...
Money-saving tip:
You can of course buy a Lyria TGV ticket from Paris to
Zurich and use your
Swiss Transfer Ticket for the journey from Zurich to St
Moritz, Davos or Klosters. But the
Swiss Transfer Ticket is valid from your point of entry
into Switzerland, in this case Basel, so it also covers the
Basel-Zurich part of the TGV journey. So don't book
the TGV from Paris to Zurich, you only need to book it from
Paris to Basel, then you simply remain in your seat for the
rest of the journey to Zurich. No seat reservations
are required for Lyria TGV journeys wholly within
Switzerland.
How to buy
tickets online...
The best and cheapest
way to buy tickets is online.
Call Rail
Europe on 0844 848 5 848 (lines open
09:00-21:00 Monday-Friday, 09:00-18:00 Saturdays, closed
Sundays, £8 booking fee) or Ffestiniog
Travel on 01766 772050 (office hours
Monday-Friday, 8% booking fee). For
more information about booking European trains, see
the How to buy train
tickets to Europe page.
You can take a train up
to London and travel from London to Switzerland as described
above, and this is usually the quickest & easiest option.
Here's some advice on buying
connecting train tickets to London. If you live in
Scotland, the Caledonian
Sleepers will get you up to London in time for a morning
Eurostar & afternoon TGV to Switzerland.
But there's a
direct City Night Line
sleeper train from Amsterdam to Switzerland,
and
DFDS Seaways run an excellent daily
overnight cruise ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam.
P&O Ferries sail overnight from Hull to Holland, and there's an
overnight Stena Line ferry from Harwich in Essex to Holland,
too. So how about
by-passing London, and having a day in Amsterdam into the
bargain before travelling on to Switzerland?
Above: By-pass London with the DFDS Seaways
cruise ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam (or P&O from
Hull to Rotterdam). Direct
sleeper trains run from Amsterdam to Prague,
Copenhagen, Warsaw, Zurich, Munich and even
Moscow...
Photo courtesy of DFDS
Scotland, the north of England,
East Anglia ► Switzerland
Day 1, Take an afternoon train from your local station
to either Harwich, Hull or Newcastle, whichever is most
convenient for where you live. Transfer to the
overnight cruise ferry to Holland, with bars, restaurants
& comfortable en suite cabins, arriving next morning.
For details of timetables, fares & how to buy tickets for
travel to Amsterdam via each of these ferry routes,
see the UK-Netherlands page.
Day 2, spend the day
in Amsterdam, all the sights are easy walking distance from
Centraal station. Left luggage lockers are available
at Centraal station, 4-6 euros for 24 hours, paid for with
Maestro or Visa cards.
Day 2 evening, take
the City Night Line sleeper train 'Pegasus' from Amsterdam
to Basel or Zurich. The Pegasus runs on daily, leaving Amsterdam at 20:31 and arriving Basel at
06:54 & Zurich at 08:20 next morning (day 3).
Change in Basel for Geneva, Lausanne, Bern or in Zurich for
Chur, Davos, St Moritz (see
www.sbb.ch
for Swiss train times & fares). The Pegasus has
sleepers (1, 2 berth rooms), couchettes (4-berth & 6-berth)
& ordinary seats. More
information about City Night Line trains.
Switzerland ►
Scotland, the north of England, East Anglia
Day 1, take a Swiss train
from anywhere in Switzerland to Basel or Zurich
(see www.sbb.ch
for Swiss train times & fares).
Day 1, evening: The City Night Line sleeper
train 'Pegasus' runs daily, leaving Zurich
at 20:42 or Basel at 22:07, arriving at Amsterdam Centraal
at 09:03.
The Pegasus has sleepers (1, 2 berth rooms), couchettes
(4-berth & 6-berth) & ordinary seats.
More information about City
Night Line trains.
Day 2: Spend the day in Amsterdam.
Left luggage lockers are available.
Day 2, late afternoon/evening: Travel overnight by cruise ferry from
Holland to either Harwich, Hull or Newcastle, whichever is
most convenient for where you live, arriving next morning (day
4). Transfer to the station and take a train home.
For full details of train & ferry times and how to buy tickets
for each of these routes,
see the UK-Netherlands page.
To check
Amsterdam-Basel/Zurich sleeper fares &
book online, go to either
www.raileurope.co.uk (easy to use and can be cheapest
way to book, but may have difficulty booking 4 berth
couchettes) or
www.bahn.de (look for the direct train with 0 changes).
Swiss railpasses & Swiss transfer tickets
Switzerland is one
of the few remaining European countries where relatively
high point-to-point rail fares and the lack of compulsory
reservations & supplements makes railpasses both good value
and convenient. You can buy your passes online from the
Switzerland Travel Centre,
a subsidiary of Swiss Federal Railways. The Swiss
Travel System people can also make the seat reservations
necessary for the few panoramic sightseeing trains that
require them, such as the
Glacier Express.
A Swiss Transfer Ticket covers one return journey from
your point of entry into Switzerland (an airport, frontier or
the first stop inside Switzerland of a 'Lyria' TGV from Paris) to
anywhere within Switzerland, using Swiss Federal Railways,
private railways and even post buses.
The Thomas Cook European Timetable
The
Thomas Cook European timetable
has train & ferry times for every country in Europe plus currency
& climate
information. Published since 1873, it costs £13.99.
It's essential for any serious traveller
and an inspiration for armchair travellers. Still
not convinced you need one? More information
on what the Thomas Cook Timetable contains. You can
buy the latest monthly edition online at
www.thomascooktimetables.com with worldwide delivery or
buy it in person from any UK branch of Thomas Cook (ask at the
bureau de change), or from W H Smiths in Victoria or Kings
Cross stations in London.
Or
buy the twice-yearly independent traveller's edition with
laminated cover from Amazon.co.uk:
2009 edition (June to December 2009)
The Thomas Cook Rail Map of
Europe is the best and most comprehensive
map of train routes right across Europe, from Portugal in the
west to Istanbul, Moscow & Ukraine in the east, from Finland
in the north to Sicily & Crete in the south. High speed
&
scenic routes are highlighted. Highly recommended!
Buy online
at www.amazon.co.uk
(worldwide delivery).
See an extract from
the map.
Definitely take a good guidebook. For the independent traveller, I
think this means either the Lonely Planet or the Rough Guide.
Both guidebooks provide the same excellent level of practical
information and historical background.
You
won't regret buying one! My own book, an essential handbook for
train travel to Europe based on this website called "The
Man in Seat 61", was published in June 2008, and is available
from Amazon.co.uk with shipping worldwide.
It's
easy to book hotels online to go with your train tickets, just use the search box below.
This links to
www.hotelscombined.com, a free search tool
which searches all the main hotel booking sites for you
(Expedia, Travelocity, LateRooms, Opodo, Venere and many
others) to find the cheapest hotel rates on the net. Set
up in 2005, it's an amazing system and probably the best place
to start for booking any hotel online in any country,
worldwide.
If you need to stay in
the St Moritz area, try the
Muottas
Muragl Bergehotel, an amazing place to stay perched on the
top of a mountain, with clean simple and (for Switzerland)
inexpensive rooms. It's reached via the Muottas Muragl
funicular railway from Punt Muragl station.
Suggested hotels in Paris near the Gare du Nord, Gare de l'Est or Gare de Lyon...
www.hostelbookers.com: Switzerland is expensive, so
if you're on a tight budget
don't forget about backpacker hostels. Hostelbookers
offers online booking of cheap private rooms or dorm beds in backpacker hostels in
Switzerland and most other European
countries at rock-bottom prices.
Travel insurance & health card
Get travel insurance..
Never go abroad without travel insurance from a
reliable insurer, with at least £1m or preferably £5m medical cover. It should also cover loss of
cash (up to a limit) and belongings, and cancellation. An annual
multi-trip policy is usually cheaper than several single-trip
policies even for just 2 or 3 trips
a year (I have an annual policy myself). Here are some suggested insurers.
Seat61 gets a small commission if you buy through these
links.
I've used
Direct Line myself and on one occasion, successfully
claimed back the cost of non-refundable Eurostar & trainhotel
tickets to Spain when we cancelled the trip because my mother
fell ill.
Feedback from
using insurance for rail & ferry travel is always welcome!
If you're a
UK citizen travelling in Europe, you should apply for a free
European Health Insurance Card, which entitles you to free or
reduced rate health care if you become ill or get injured in
many European countries, under a reciprocal arrangement with
the NHS. This replaced the old E111 forms
as from January 2006. The EHIC card is available from
www.ehic.org.uk. It doesn't remove the need for
travel insurance, though.
Get an international SIM card...
Mobile phones can cost a fortune to use abroad, but if you
buy a global SIM card for your mobile phone from a company
such as
www.Go-Sim.com you can slash the cost by up to 85%. It
cuts call costs in 175 countries worldwide,
and you can receive incoming calls and texts for free in 75 countries. It's pay-as-you-go, so no nasty bills
when you get home. It also allows cheap data access for laptops
& PDAs. A Go-Sim account and any credit on it doesn't
expire if it's not used between trips, unlike some
others, so a Go-Sim phone number becomes your 'global phone
number' for life.
If you want a holiday in
Switzerland by
train, but would prefer to travel with fellow travellers, a
tour manager and all the organisation done for you, there are
two companies (in fact, both part of the same group) who run
escorted tours from the UK to the Swiss Alps by Eurostar and
high-speed TGV, with regular departures, no airport hassles
and no whole days spent in cramped coach seats on motorways.
Seat61 gets some commission to support the site if you book
your holiday through these links or phone numbers.
Treyn Holidays
offers several train-based tours to Switzerland, with 3*
hotels and travel from London by Eurostar and high-speed TGV.
For example, a 5-day break to Lake Geneva from £425 per
person, or an 8-day tour combining Mont Blanc with the amazing
Glacier Express (see the Glacier
Express page), from £695. Check details at
www.treynholidays.co.uk,
then book online or call 0845 402 2069.
GRJ offers
five-star inclusive tours to Switzerland, with 1st class train
travel and 5* hotels, from around £1,280 per person.
Their most popular tour combines 1st class overland travel
from London to Switzerland by Eurostar & high-speed TGV with a
ride on the famous narrow-gauge Glacier
Express, which runs right across Switzerland from St
Moritz to Zermatt through spectacular scenery. Tours
depart regularly throughout much of the year. Check
the tour details online, then call 01904 527120 to
book or use their
online
booking form.
ERail,
www.erail.co.uk,
020 7619 1080 (please quote 'Seat61.com'
when you call)...
If you prefer to
travel on your own unescorted with departure on any date you
like, ERail offers tours to Switzerland by train from the UK.
How to buy tickets online...
How to
You
won't regret buying one! My own book, an essential handbook for
train travel to Europe based on this website called "
If you live in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland or the
EU, see
